BURST(1) BURST(1)
NAME
burst - explode digests into messages
SYNOPSIS
burst [+folder] [msgs] [-inplace] [-noinplace] [-quiet]
[-noquiet] [-verbose] [-noverbose] [-version] [-help]
DESCRIPTIONBurst considers the specified messages in the named folder
to be Internet digests, and explodes them in that folder.
If `-inplace' is given, each digest is replaced by the
"table of contents" for the digest (the original digest is
removed). Burst then renumbers all of the messages fol-
lowing the digest in the folder to make room for each of
the messages contained within the digest. These messages
are placed immediately after the digest.
If `-noinplace' is given, each digest is preserved, no
table of contents is produced, and the messages contained
within the digest are placed at the end of the folder.
Other messages are not tampered with in any way.
The `-quiet' switch directs burst to be silent about
reporting messages that are not in digest format.
The `-verbose' switch directs burst to tell the user the
general actions that it is taking to explode the digest.
It turns out that burst works equally well on forwarded
messages and blind-carbon-copies as on Internet digests,
provided that the former two were generated by forw or
send. ^$HOME/.mh_profile~^The user profile ^Path:~^To
determine the user's nmh directory ^Current-Folder:~^To
find the default current folder ^Msg-Protect:~^To set mode
when creating a new message ProposedStandardforMessageEncapsulation (RFC-934),
inc(1), msh(1), pack(1) `+folder' defaults to the current
folder `msgs' defaults to cur `-noinplace' `-noquiet'
`-noverbose' If a folder is given, it will become the cur-
rent folder. If `-inplace' is given, then the first mes-
sage burst becomes the current message. This leaves the
context ready for a show of the table of contents of the
digest, and a next to see the first message of the digest.
If `-noinplace' is given, then the first message extracted
from the first digest burst becomes the current message.
This leaves the context in a similar, but not identical,
state to the context achieved when using `-inplace'. The
burst program enforces a limit on the number of messages
which may be burst from a single message. This number is
on the order of 1000 messages. There is usually no limit
on the number of messages which may reside in the folder
after the bursting.
Although burst uses a sophisticated algorithm to determine
where one encapsulated message ends and another begins,
not all digestifying programs use an encapsulation algo-
rithm. In degenerate cases, this usually results in burst
finding an encapsulation boundary prematurely and split-
ting a single encapsulated message into two or more mes-
sages. These erroneous digestifying programs should be
fixed.
Furthermore, any text which appears after the last encap-
sulated message is not placed in a seperate message by
burst. In the case of digestified messages, this text is
usally an "End of digest" string. As a result of this
possibly un-friendly behavior on the part of burst, note
that when the `-inplace' option is used, this trailing
information is lost. In practice, this is not a problem
since correspondents usually place remarks in text prior
to the first encapsulated message, and this information is
not lost.
[nmh-0.27] MH.6.8 1